Social Security Benefits
- Choose a cemetery.
- Select a burial plot or mausoleum.
- Select a memorial or grave marker and inscription.
- Decide who will keep your urn.
- Decide who will scatter your ashes and where.
- Choose burial or cremation.
- Select a casket or cremation container.
- Choose locations and types of services.
- Choose floral arrangements.
- Select which photographs and memorabilia you’d like to display.
- Consider any customs, traditions, or religious rites that are important to you and your family.
- Choose the clothing you’d like to be dressed in.
- Select music and hymns, if desired.
- Choose a theme for decorations and stationery at your services.
- Arrange transportation for your physical remains and your family.
Pre-Planning Checklist
Ways to Plan Ahead:
- Choose a clergy member or officiator to preside over the service.
- Select any musicians whose talents you’d like to employ.
- Select pallbearers.
- Choose friends or family members to perform the eulogy, read scripture, or prepare a speech.
Funeral Service
Participants
There’s no need to make all the decisions right away. For personalized assistance in creating your plan, contact one of our experts to schedule a one-on-one meeting.
Final Disposition
Remember...
Pre-Planning Checklist
- Choose a cemetery.
- Select a burial plot or mausoleum.
- Select a memorial or grave marker and inscription.
- Decide who will keep your urn.
- Decide who will scatter your ashes and where.
Funeral Service
Ways to Plan Ahead:
- Choose a clergy member or officiator to preside over the service.
- Select any musicians whose talents you’d like to employ.
- Select pallbearers.
- Choose friends or family members to perform the eulogy, read scripture, or prepare a speech.
There’s no need to make all the decisions right away. For personalized assistance in creating your plan, contact one of our experts to schedule a one-on-one meeting.
Participants
Final Disposition
Participants
Funeral Service
Remember...
Pre-Planning Checklist
Final Disposition
- Gather personal information for your obituary.
- Choose a charity to direct donations to, if desired.
- Choose a funeral home.
- Make note of any instructions for your services and final disposition.
- Choose burial or cremation.
- Select a casket or cremation container.
- Choose locations and types of services.
- Choose floral arrangements.
- Select which photographs and memorabilia you’d like to display.
- Consider any customs, traditions, or religious rites that are important to you and your family.
- Choose the clothing you’d like to be dressed in.
- Select music and hymns, if desired.
- Choose a theme for decorations and stationery at your services.
- Arrange transportation for your physical remains and your family.
- Choose a clergy member or officiator to preside over the service.
- Select any musicians whose talents you’d like to employ.
- Select pallbearers.
- Choose friends or family members to perform the eulogy, read scripture, or prepare a speech.
Ways to Plan Ahead:
There’s no need to make all the decisions right away. For personalized assistance in creating your plan, contact one of our experts to schedule a one-on-one meeting.
- Choose burial or cremation.
- Select a casket or cremation container.
- Choose locations and types of services.
- Choose floral arrangements.
- Select which photographs and memorabilia you’d like to display.
- Consider any customs, traditions, or religious rites that are important to you and your family.
- Choose the clothing you’d like to be dressed in.
- Select music and hymns, if desired.
- Choose a theme for decorations and stationery at your services.
- Arrange transportation for your physical remains and your family.
Final Disposition
Ways to Plan Ahead:
- Choose a cemetery.
- Select a burial plot or mausoleum.
- Select a memorial or grave marker and inscription.
- Decide who will keep your urn.
- Decide who will scatter your ashes and where.
Remember...
Funeral Service
Participants
Guiding You Through The Process
The family members of the deceased may be eligible to receive Social Security benefits if the deceased had worked long enough under Social Security to qualify for benefits. It's important to contact the Social Security office as soon as possible to ensure that the family receives all the benefits they are entitled to. Please carefully read the following information to understand what benefits may be available.
A one-time payment of $255 is paid in addition to the monthly cash benefits described above. The lump-sum death payment (LSDP) is paid in the following priority order:
- A surviving spouse who lived in the same household as the deceased person at the time of death
- A surviving spouse eligible for or entitled to benefits for the month of death
- A child or children eligible for or entitled to benefits for the month of death
To receive monthly benefits, the deceased worker must have credit for work covered by Social Security ranging from 1 1/2 to 10 years depending on his or her age at death. Those eligible for monthly benefits include:
- A widow or widower age 60 or older (age 50 or older if disabled);
- A surviving spouse at any age who is caring for the deceased's child under age 16 or disabled;
- An unmarried child of the deceased who is younger than age 18 (or age 18 or 19 if he or she is a full-time student in an elementary or secondary school); or age 18 or older with a disability that began before age 22;
- Parents, age 62 or older, who were dependent on the deceased for at least half of their support; and
- A surviving divorced spouse, under certain circumstances.
Visit the
Social Security website for information about all of Social Security's programs, including survivors' benefits.
You can also call them toll-free at
1-800-772-1213. Staff can answer specific questions from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., M-F. They can also provide information by automated phone service 24 hours a day. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you may call the TTY number at
1-800-325-0778.
